Click the play button on the video window to the see the story
One of every four buses inspected by Arizona Department of Public Safety officers are taken out of service, most often for violations related to the brakes, according to records obtained by the ABC15 Investigators.
Out of 21,125 inspections done by the DPS Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau between April 2006 and November 2008, 5,769 resulted in buses being pulled off the road.
Inspectors found a total of 8,849 separate problems serious enough to qualify as "out of service violations," of which 1,453 involved brakes.
"It can be critical, a life and death situation," said DPS Officer Jim Daugherty, one of the state's school bus inspectors.
Three Valley school district rank among the ten worst statewide when it comes to the number of buses with brake violations.
Washington Elementary School District, the largest elementary district in the Valley, has the most violations involving brakes in the Phoenix metro area with 70 between April 2006 and November 2008.
"We wished it was better than that and we're working on it," said Leonard Sweeney with the Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix. "We never take a bus on the road when the brakes are an issue."
According to DPS, there are two types of violations involving brakes:
1) Brakes out of adjustment
2) All other brake problems.
"In the over four years that I've been here, we've never had an accident due to any kind of failure including brakes," said Douglas King with the Peoria Unified School District.
Peoria Unified has the second worst record in the Valley with 58 violations involving brakes over the time period reviewed.
"We always want to do better," King said. "We always want to be able to decrease any kind of violation or any kind of safety hazard that might be brought to our attention."
Mesa Public Schools, the largest unified school district in the Valley, comes in third with 48 brake-related violations.
Kathy Bareiss, director of community relations for Mesa Public Schools, said, "We are not only the largest school district in the Valley, but the largest in Arizona with nearly 70,000 students...We do not take any chances when it comes to the safety of our students and other riders."
A total of 125 bus operators, like the Creighton, Fountain Hills, and Gila Bend school districts, had clean records, not a single violation involving brakes.
For both Peoria Unified and the Washington Elementary School Districts, most of their violations are minor repairs that are fixed on the spot.
"It could be repaired and back on the road in about 60 seconds," King said.
Both districts, however, admit there's no way of knowing how long students were riding around on buses with brakes that were out of adjustment and in need of repair.
"It would be a complete hazard," Daugherty said, "very dangerous to anyone aboard the bus."
Out of all the school districts statewide, Tucson Unified had the most violations involving brakes over the time period.
"I know it looks bad, but it's not as bad as it looks. We have one of the largest fleets in the state," said Tom Mulligan with the Tucson Unified School District. "My concern is when I put a child on board a bus, I want to make sure the bus is safe."
Arizona School Districts with the Most Brake Violations
(from DPS inspection data, 4/1/06-11/25/08)1) Tucson Unified School District, 122
2) Yuma Schools, 113
3) Amphitheater Public Schools, 79
4) Marana Unified School District, 76
5) Washington Elementary School District, 70
6) Casa Grande Elementary School District, 66
6) Sunnyside Unified School District, 66
8) Peoria Unified School District, 58
9) Vail School District, 47
10) Mesa Public Schools, 46
